This Is the No. 1 Travel Tip for Black Travelers, According to the First Black Woman to Visit Every Country

Jessica Nabongo while traveling in Yazd, Iran.Credit: Jessica NabongoJessica Nabongo has visited every country in the world, giving her a firsthand perspective on travel that few others have. Her experience has also given her a broader outlook on what it means to navigate the world as a Black traveler, and her advice may surprise some.

"Don't make race the starting point," she told Travel + Leisure. "Don't lead with that."

It's a philosophy influenced by her numerous experiences abroad. Nabongo has lived in Japan, London, Senegal, and Italy, among other places, and has spent years immersed in life outside the United States. "What Black American travelers will experience when they travel is a freedom that is hard to find at home," she said.

That doesn't mean Nabongo believes racism disappears once you cross an international border. It doesn't. Instead, she encourages travelers to resist the temptation to interpret every interaction through the same lens. "Every acknowledgment of your race isn't racism," she said.

The distinction matters because travel can put people in unfamiliar situations where it's easy to question what an interaction means. Was someone staring because of your race, curiosity, unfamiliarity, or something else? Was a comment offensive, or was it simply a cultural difference? Nabongo believes travelers are better served by assessing those moments individually rather than immediately turning one interaction into a judgment about an entire country.

Her perspective also pushes back against a common way of talking about Black travel. Too often, conversations about where Black people can travel become lists of places where they will supposedly be safe, welcome, or comfortable, as if those are the only criteria that should determine where they go. Nabongo wants Black travelers to have a larger frame of reference.

"I want Black travelers to feel empowered to choose destinations based on where they want to go, not where they think they'll be accepted," she said.

That doesn't mean ignoring common sense or dismissing concerns about discrimination. It means refusing to let the possibility of a negative encounter eliminate the possibility of everything else a destination can offer.

Nabongo has seen enough to know that no destination can be reduced to a single narrative. A place can be welcoming to one traveler and difficult for another. She recalled a conversation with another travel influencer who described a destination as deeply racist. Nabongo visited the same place and had an entirely positive experience. "Neither account," she explained, "cancels the other."

Regardless, Nabongo has found that the world is larger and more welcoming than fear would have you believe, and "the only way to understand this is to see it for yourself."

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